April 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo’s
government suspended four top security officials for failing to
prevent violence by a separatist militia in mineral-rich Katanga
province that killed at least 15 people dead last month.

About 250 Kata Katanga militants, whose name means “cut
out Katanga” in the Swahili language, fought government
soldiers and police in the provincial capital, Lubumbashi, on
March 23 before surrendering at a United Nations compound.

Army and police commanders in Katanga were aware of the
militia advance “but they did not understand the gravity of the
situation,” Claudel Andre Lubaya, the head of a parliamentary
commission investigating the attack, told reporters yesterday in
the country’s capital, Kinshasa. The United Nations initially
estimated 35 people had died.

After years of conflict and instability, Congo’s mining
industry has flourished since 2009, with copper production
doubling to about 600,000 metric tons last year, most of it
coming from Katanga in the southeast. The Central African
country was the eighth-largest producer of the metal in 2012,
accounting for 3.4 percent of world output, according to the
U.S. Geological Survey. It also produces half of the world’s
cobalt, used in rechargeable batteries.

Copper Hub

Lubumbashi, a city of 1.5 million people, is a hub for
copper and cobalt miners operating in Congo, including Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Ivanplats Ltd. and Glencore
International Plc.

Regional and provincial officials from the police
department, immigration ministry and intelligence unit were
suspended, according to a government statement e-mailed
yesterday.

The proliferation of rebel forces seeking independence for
Katanga stems from economic inequality within the province and
across the country while local authorities have been fanning
tensions, Lubaya, a member of the opposition, said.

“There are no schools, there are no hospitals and these
people are dying next to these mining companies that pump out
our resources and sell them on the markets,” he said. “Katanga
is a powder keg.”